Wednesday, 7 November 2012

Flashmob days.....

I'm walking through Castle Gardens, a little park in the heart of the city.It's lunchtime, and as I make my way towards the banks of the River Soar, I can hear the distant sounds of a song dragging me screaming back to the eighties.

Turning a corner , I'm confronted by a thousand people in front of a stage.

Many are wearing blonde wigs....some of the men look like the tartiest transvestites around. Think Sean Bean in his latest television appearance.

There are cheerleaders with impossibly long ,fake tanned legs, in very short shorts.

There are big butch security men ,

lots of students, and they're all dancing.

And here's more on stage with blond wigs.....these are the top bods at the university...

And there's more and more of them....

all lip synching and performing moves like the Mobot to Bonnie Tyler blasting out...."Holding out for a hero". I hated that song back then and I haven't changed my mind all these years later.

But let's not be churlish. The wig wearers and hyperactive dancers are all there for a very good cause.It's a lip synching flashmob, all there to raise money for two exceptionally good causes -. LOROS, the wonderful hospice in Leicester where my mother in law died, and PROSTAID, which raises funds for research and treatment for men with prostate cancer.

The flashmob is the brainchild of the charismatic Dominic Shellard, who's Vice Chancellor of De Montfort University. He throws himself into his role with gusto.......

But it's not just a flashmob...there's a film being made with a back story and some sort of a plot....which involves my mate Jonathan Lampon from work, some Leicester Tigers players (well, hello...), Leicestershire cricketers and Alan Birchenall, all round good egg, and local footballing leg end .

Why is Jonathan hiding...and not in the limelight for once?? Oh...it 's all part of the act...? Mind you, with a blond wig like that, I'd be holding it and in hiding too....

The atmosphere is great... seeing so many people lip synching, dancing together ,and having such bloody fun on a Wednesday lunchtime and raising thousands of pounds for charity is heartwarming, life affirming. I can't wait to see the video ....

But after an hour of dear old Bonnie belting out from the speakers, just don't, and I repeat don't .... sing, whistle, or even hum the tune to "Holding out for a hero "near me in the next few weeks. I may not be responsible for my actions.

Today's track is NOT a Bonnie Tyler one. Appropriate as it would be....I don't think so....

Instead...what about "Heroes" by the Wallflowers? I really like their version of the Bowie classic.....